Oakland County marriage numbers steady despite national decrease

Recent statistics show that marriages are at a historic low, but it seems that might not be the case in Oakland County.

Kathy Craig, office leader of Oakland County Clerk’s Office of Vital Records, said marriages this year might be slightly ahead of last year.

For 2013, there have been 2,882 marriages so far. Craig said that number typically rises quickly in the summer.

“It’s about the same as last year, it’s not down at all,” Craig said.

Advertisement

Marriages actually increased from 2011 to 2012, with 6,887 couples filing for licenses in 2012, up more than 200 from 2011, when there were 6,673 marriages — a rate of 11 per 1,000 residents, according to the Department of Community Health.

In 2011, Macomb County had a marriage rate of 10.9 and Wayne County’s rate was 8.2 out of 1,000 residents.

From 1999 to 2011, Oakland County’s highest year for marriages was 1999, with a rate of 13.7 per 1,000 — slightly above the state average of 13.6.

Nationally, in 2011, the rate of marriage was 6.8 per 1,000, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The rates dipped in 2008 to 10.7 per 1,000 in Oakland County, and stayed that way until 2011 when the rate rose to 11 per 1,000, lower than the statewide average rate of 11.4 in 1,000.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, in 2011, Oakland County had 3,889 divorces, with a rate of 6.4 per 1,000 — higher than Wayne County’s rate of 5.4 per 1,000, but lower than Macomb County’s rate of 6.7 per 1,000.

Nationally, the divorce rate was 3.6 in 1,000 for 2011, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

USA Today reported the rate of cohabitation — unmarried adult couples of the opposite sex — is rising. In 2010, 7.53 million Americans were cohabiting, compared to 3.82 million in 2000.

“I think many people feel that it’s better and easier to just live together than take the plunge,” said reader Melanie Perez of Pontiac. “I have been with my husband for seven years and married for three of those.

“I say to each their own. You don’t need a piece of paper to prove your love. Most people do it for the technicalities.”

Another reader, Barb Yagley, said: “The decline in the marriage rate began 40-plus years ago and has persisted through good economies and bad economies.

“But after the ‘marriage equality’ people redefine marriage, there will be this wonderful awakening to the beauty of marital unions by everyone, and the marriage rate will skyrocket.”